AIM

Website URL

ICQ

Yahoo

Skype

Interests

The Forgotten Knight's Insane Mode Guide The most accurate guide on the internet. Guaranteed For all those Gold Skull Collectors Forward After playing with many skilled and not so skilled players in Castle Crashers I’ve decided to comprise this guide to help beginners and veterans alike in completing the challenge of insane mode. Beating this difficulty is signified by a gold skull in place of the white one earned for beating normal mode on the selection screen. Legitimate gold skulls are few and far in between. Many of us beg the question, Why settle for simply beating the game when you can prove you’re great at it? How to know when you’re ready. Insane mode is always done best with friends and just because you’ve beaten the game doesn’t mean you or your valient circle of knights are anywhere near ready to handle the grueling challenge about to be faced. My general rule of thumb is to never use a character for insane mode until they are either level 40 or have a full defense bar. Defense is the most important stat to have because it is the only thing that will allow you to stand toe to toe with enemies dealing anywhere between 200-300+ points of damage per hit. The reason I consider level 40 to be the best level to start insane mode with is because even if you lack a full defense bar your other stats should be high enough to compensate for this weakness. It also means that by the time you reach the end of the map your character should be well into 60s or 70s by then. Strategies The best thing you can bring to insane mode is a friend. Why let the enemy hit you when they can hit someone else? Remember it is important to note in your strategy that the number of enemies will increase when you have 3 or more players and the health of Bosses will increase per player in the party i.e. Bosses will have more health against four players than they would against one, two, or thee. There are two main methods of combat used for getting through insane mode; Arrow Spamming and Melee Comboing. Both have strengths and weaknesses. Magic should not be relied on as a primary attack method but instead as a support role to prevent players from being overwhelmed in battle. The enemies on insane mode require too many hits for the magic bar to sustain consistently. “Mage” characters will always be the first to die on insane. 1.) Arrow Spamming A maxed out agility bar will allow your arrows to fly straight and true as you send out a suppressive field of fire down the line. This is good for keeping scores of enemies at bay while preventing them from hitting you. It is particularily useful against enemies with Tornado Magic and the Corn Boss. This strategy is most effective with more people doing it. There are some downsides to arrow spamming as well. If you are shooting down the line of a melee fighter on your team it will often do him more harm than good. Arrows will always cancel out a melee attack and this can prevent melee fighters from being able to perform combos or finish their moves, it will also stop them dead in their tracks since they are no longer hitting anything. Often the result will be an enemy coming from behind and hitting your ally. This can also end up with your teammate surrounded by a group of enemies since he is not pushing them away or your arrows are knocking them behind him. Arrow spamming will also take the longer to kill an enemy than melee fighting will. The reason being because you can only hit the closest enemy directly in front of you, leaving those behind him free to move around and change positions. This alternates who gets hit and who doesn’t and results in each enemy only receiving a little amount of damage before switching out with someone else. The biggest downfall for arrow spamming is the fact that it only works on half the bosses. Many of the bosses in this game move erratically and don’t stay along the same line long enough for this tactic to be of any help and there are others who have resistance against projectile attacks. Arrow spamming is also weak against enemies who perform magic or other unorthodox attacks. Archers will find difficulty fighting Periwinkles, Fire Demons, Royal Guards, Dark Minions, Scarabs…ECT…ECT. 2.) Melee Comboing It is my preferred method of fighting on insane mode. I’ve tried both and I’ve found this one to be the most effective all around for standard enemies and bosses. Comboing with full strength does more damage per hit than arrow spamming and it also allows you to hit the same enemy more often as well as hit multiple enemies at once. The downside to comboing is that it will put you in the thick of battle and result in you being hit more often. For those of you who don’t know how to combo simply hit X and A at the same time, push forward into your enemy and hit X,X,Y. This works for all characters except the Green Knight, who has a unique Y attack. For more advanced comboing techniques please view Fenix's Definitive Guide to Everything Melee. Equipment It is important to be very selective of the weapon you are bringing to insane mode; often it will make the difference between life and death. Choosing a weapon to aid one of your weaker stats is good but one that will keep you alive is even better. The more damage you do the greater chance you have of surviving but it is important to remember what type of enemy you will be fighting in each level and adapt accordingly. Enemies such as Fire Demons will use magic heavily and require you to move faster in order to dodge these attacks. The following are all weapons I use myself. 1.) Wooden Club: It provides +5 Strength and +5 Defense as well as a Critical Hit bonus. It takes away -5 Agility but agility is only needed on certain levels. The Wooden Club offers a long reach that is good for juggling enemies in the air and is the best weapon in the game for overall. Many people mistake the Golden Sword in the King Pack DLC as the best weapon for strength but it will only provide +2 damage to attacks over the Wooden Club. The Critical Hit and Defense bonus are what make the Wooden Club a superior weapon. For decreasing the effects of the negative agility stats Scratchpaw or Meowburt are recommended. 2.) Black Katana: Aka the Necromancer/Evil Sword. This weapon is often thought to be the best weapon in the game for Defense and technically it is. Thanks to Awwner 5 we've found that the Black Katana with its +7 Defense only provides 50 extra HP points over the Wooden Club's +5 Defense. What this means is that you will only be able to take one extra hit of damage in combat. On insane mode this will not make a difference. The benefits of the Wooden Club far out weigh those of the Black Katana and I will recommend it every single time over this weapon. In terms of Defense they are practically the same. 3.) Sai and Black Mace: If your main method of attack is arrow spamming then these two weapons are what you want. Both provide +6 Agility which will increase the amout of damage you do with each arrow. It is up to you which weapon to use as each comes with their own bonus. Combined with Meowburt the Black Mace and Sai are the best ways to maximize your arrow spam efficency. The Black Mace aka Skeletor Mace does +6 Agility as well as -2 Strength and +3 Defense. The Sai will give you +6 Agility, -2 Defense and a Critical Hit bonus. Although it is rare, you can still preform a critical hit with an arrow. 4.) Bombs are also useful to take. They deal a good amount of damage to bosses and provide an escape when you are being overwhelmed by large groups of enemies. 5.) Sandwiches are also useful when surrounded by regular enemies but are weak against projectile attacks and other Beefys. They can also be used effectively against certain bosses to prevent players from being knocked down; the Corn Boss, Medusa, ECT...ECT... Use what the situation calls for. Animal Orbs Overall the best animal orbs to take are ones that will keep you alive or boost your stats. It is up to you to decide which one you will benefit the most from. I will often pick one that allows me to deal extra damage or help increase some of my weaker stats that I need to stay alive. The ones I list below are some of the ones that provide notable assistance beyond their in game description. Rammy- frequently knocks down multiple enemies when you are in a fixed position. This is very useful when you are surrounded, however he will also knock enemies out of the air which will prevent you from combo juggling them. He also has the bad habit of knocking over enemies who have JUST been frozen, setting them free to attack again. He is a useful partner for Hawkster. Hawkster- frequently attacks downed enemies and doubles the amount of food dropped in game. His retrieval of the food also allows you to focus more on the battle at hand and can be used to help struggling teammates. Two Hawksters on the team will assure a constant flow of health throughout the level. He is a useful parter for Rammy and Piggy. Piggy- increases the amount of health gained by food. How much extra health depends on the item. Meat gives more health than fruit. A single bite of fruit can fill half a players health bar with Piggy. This allows the player he is following to need less which can be used by the rest of the team. Please note he only provides the health increase for the player he is equiped to. He is a useful partner for Hawkster and low defense players. Meowburt- provides +3 Agility and combined with the Black Mace or Sai a player can do 37 damage per hit with each arrow. Meowburt is ideal for arrow spamers seeking to do the maximum amount of damage or players needing an agility boost in combat. Sherbert- excellent for players without magic jump who are fighting the Final Boss. For more info on Animal Orbs check out Drunken Feedle's Orb Categories or Castlepedia for all Animal Orb secrets. The Saving System Unlike most of regular mode, insane mode will not save after every level. Instead, some save points will only occur by completing a level further ahead. This system also means that not all levels will need to be played in order for the game to be considered complete. REMEMBER THE GAME ONLY SAVES WHEN YOU GO TO THE WORLD MAP Level Saves The levels highlighted in blue are the ones necessary in order for a save to occur and the final game to be considered complete. Home Castle Castle Keep Barbarian War Barbarian Boss Forest Entrance Thieves’ Forest Abandoned Mill Rapids Ride Catfish Tall Grass Field Pipistrello’s Cave Flowery Field Wedding Crash Parade Cyclops’ Cave Cyclops’ Gate Cyclops’ Fortress Lava World Industrial Castle Dock Pirate Ship Desert Alien Ship Desert Chase Sand Castle Interior IMPORTANT NOTE: You can skip fighting the enemies on this level by going in and out of the exit via Sand Castle Roof. Sand Castle Roof Marsh Corn Boss IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT need the Horn in your inventory for the game to be considered complete. Flooded Temple Medusa’s Lair Full Moon Snow World Ice Castle Wizard Castle Takeoff Wizard Castle Interior Final Battle IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are level skipping then the Final Boss must be beaten TWICE for the Gold Skull to show up. Wait for credits, exit to map, exit game, start new game, defeat Final Boss once more. All the Mandatory Levels must be cleared for this to work.